“We Shall Overcome”: The Civil Rights Movement 7691963 Diem’s regime was in ruins. An ardent Catholic,
he cracked down on the Buddhists, who, joined by stu-
dents, protested his repression. Thousands were
arrested, and some were shot. In protest, several
Buddhist monks became martyrs by setting themselves
on fire in public.
Unable to persuade Diem to moderate his poli-
cies, Kennedy sent word to dissident Vietnamese gen-
erals of his willingness to support them if they ousted
Diem. On November 1 several of these generals sur-
rounded the presidential palace with troops and
tanks, seized Diem, and killed him. Kennedy, though
appalled by Diem’s death, recognized the new junta.
The decision to overthrow Diem was fateful; it com-
mitted the United States to finding a solution to a
worsening situation in Vietnam.
“We Shall Overcome”: The Civil Rights Movement
Kennedy initially approached the race question with
exceeding caution. His razor-thin victory had
depended on the votes both of African Americans in
northern cities and white Democrats in the Deep
South. As president, his visible support for one group
would alienate the other. So Kennedy temporized,
urging leaders on both sides to show restraint. This
proved impossible. The civil rights movement had
already intensified its protests.
In February 1960 four African American college
students in Greensboro, North Carolina, sat down at
a lunch counter at a Woolworth’s store. “We do not
serve Negroes,” they were told. They returned with
more and more demonstrators. By the end of the
week over a thousand protesters descended on
Woolworth’s, led by a phalanx of football players
from the nearby black college who cleared the way
through a throng of Confederate flag-wavers. “Who
do you think you are?” a white demanded. “We the
Union army,” a football player retorted.
This “sit-in” tactic was not new. The Congress of
Racial Equality (CORE) had staged sit-ins in Chicago
restaurants back in 1943. But the Greensboro students
sparked a national movement; students in dozens of
other southern towns and cities copied their example.
Soon more than fifty sit-ins were in progress in south-
ern cities. By the end of 1961 over 70,000 people had
participated in such demonstrations. Still another new
organization, theStudent Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), was founded by black collegeIn the summer of 1963, Buddhist monks protested against the rule of Diem (and his brother, the Catholic archbishop of Vietnam) by setting
themselves on fire.